Description
CRIBS
At the Crib
Ed Young
December 13-14, 2003
If you have you have your Bibles, turn to the book of Matthew, Chapter 2. If you don’t have your Bibles, you can chill, because you can follow along as I read by way of View-A-Verse [the side screens in the auditorium]. Let’s stand together in reverence to the Bible as we read. You know, it’s very important to kneel and sometimes to stand as we read this Word directly to us. And I’d like to read it together, you know. Read along with me as I go through this. So I’ll read Matthew 2:1-3; and then I will skip down and read Matthew 2:9-12. Let’s begin. One, two, three… “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.’ When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.”
Let’s now go to Verses 9-12: “After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.” You guys sound great! Let’s pray together.
Father, thank you for your Word that is tailor-made for all of our lives. God, I know we are here for different reasons. And I know, God, that the ultimate reason is because you, by maybe a set of strange circumstances, orchestrated us to be in this building at this time to hear this message through music and through your Word. I thank you now for the results of this time together. For we voice this prayer in the name that’s above every name, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Well, I like this stage, man. [An addition to the stage has been built to allow Ed more room to walk around] It’s really cool. You can walk all over the place. I might do that today.
You know, one of the first jobs I ever had in my life was working for a travel agency. And working for a travel agency is pretty cool because it gives you the opportunity to help people travel to different destinations all around the world. And I worked for a place in Houston called Travel Habit. That’s a pretty cool name, Travel Habit. We were the travel habit of many different clients, and we would assist them in finding their ultimate destination.
Well, I was thinking this past week about this whole concept of Travel Habit and travel agencies and all that. And I thought about the Christmas season. Because basically, all of us, every single person hearing my voice right now, all of us are traveling toward a certain destination. We’re going somewhere with our lives. And I want to stop and ask you just right now. Where are you going? What direction? What destination are you following, are you after? Where’s your travel habit?
I’m in a series called “Cribs.” CRIBS—that Crucial Relationship Initiated By the Savior. That’s the meaning of Christmas. It’s all about the crib, the fact that God walked down the staircase of Heaven with a baby in his arms. And that baby was born in a crib. He got out of the crib and lived a sinless life and died a sacrificial death and rose again.
And simply put, Jesus wants all of us to make a crib out of our lives, and he wants to live in our crib. He wants to call the shots. He wants to run the show. And that’s when our life will hit on all cylinders—when that situation, that decision occurs. It’s something that’s a personal decision that we have to make between ourselves and God.
Well, last time we talked about King Herod. Remember Psycho Herod? Hydroplaning Herod? They guy who was into attaining personal power? The man who cut his teeth on how to wield power, how to deal with power, and how to destroy anybody or anything that got in his way?
Herod was confronted by the crib of Christ. And that’s one of the amazing things about Christmas, because the crib confronts us all. And the crib has such a power to confront that when it does confront us, it shows us where we’re traveling. And last time we discovered that Herod was on a power trip, literally. Because of the crib, and because of the confrontation by the crib, Herod did several things. He misused people, he misled people, and he mistreated people.
You show me somebody who’s on a power trip; you show me someone, like King Herod, who is sovereignly ruling over their lives; you show me someone who is sitting on the throne of their lives, white knuckling the armrest, and I’ll show you someone who will inevitably use people and mislead people and mistreat people. It always happens. And sadly, Herod signed up for a lot of turmoil and a lot of heartache because he was running the show.
Well, as I said earlier, we’re not made to run the show. Christ is made to run the show. Our lives are wired for him to call the shots.
Today, we’re going to get up close and personal to a group of people who are also confronted by the crib. They didn’t do what Herod did. They didn’t do the push back and power up. They didn’t white knuckle the throne of their lives. Instead, they did something else. And these people are people we can learn from because in this hour, the crib is confronting us all. It begs for a decision. It begs for a response. And the crib, as we talk about it, will show us where we’re going. It will show us where we’re headed. It will point us to our destination. So once again I’ll ask you the question: Where are you going in your life? Think about that.
Let’s go back to the Scripture we read a second ago, Matthew 2:1-3. “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem…” Now let me stop here. I’m a “why” person. I ask myself “why” all the time. Why? Why in the world would Magi travel thousands of miles on the back of a camel just to go to Jerusalem? I mean, that’s kind of strange. These guys are from the area of Babylon. Why would they do that? Think about it. It’s something to think about. We’ll talk about that in a little while.
And these guys, these Magi, ask this question in Verse 2, “Where is the One who has been born king of the Jews? We saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.” Well, last time we discovered this question on the surface seems rather benign, rather flippant. “Hey, where’s the one born king of the Jews?” Well, we also learned last time that this question had huge and towering implications. Herod went freaky because someone, he thought, was threatening his power, and he just lost it. Herod was definitely wack-a-doodle-doo. The guy did not have it together.
“We saw a star,” these Magi said, “and we’ve come to…” do what? “We’ve come to worship him.” Worship, well, that was where they were headed. And I was thinking about worship. We all worship. Everyone here worships. We’re all worshipers. We’re wired for worship and we’re going to worship something. Even if you’re not a Christ-follower, you’re a worshiper.
Just look at our culture. We’re worshiping stuff. What do we worship? We worship sex. We worship money. We worship fame. A lot of us worship sports. We’ll bow down to the soccer god, the football god, the golf god, the basketball god, or whatever. We’re worshiping stuff. Some people worship travel. We can worship things, and we’re going to worship. We’re made to worship. Every culture, everywhere from the beginning of time onward, they worship. We’re just wired for it.
Sadly though, a lot of people waste their worship. That’s why God has said, time and time again, “Don’t waste your worship.” That’s one of The Ten Commandments. “Don’t waste your worship.” We’re wired for Christ to call the shots. We’re wired for us to bow before him and to worship the Lord. So these wise men, they were into worship. They were trying to find the meaning, the answer to worship.
We’ll let’s keep reading. Look at Verse 9, “After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east…” Well again, why were they looking in the sky? I know they were astronomers, maybe astrologers or whatever. But why take a road trip on the back of a camel a thousand miles? I mean, I’ve been on the back of a camel. It’s horrible! It wore me out after 15 minutes. Camels are ugly, they’re mean, and they stink. They’ll spit on you. They’ll bite you.
Years ago I did this series called “Animal Planet.” If you were here for that series, lift your hand. Many of you probably weren’t here. A few of you were. I took the animals of the Bible and did a series about them. And I talked about a camel. And the title of the talk was “Camel Filter.” It’s pretty funny. Get it? Camel filter? Because Jesus said, “You know, it’s more difficult for a rich man to get into Heaven than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.” He was kind of using some humor. So I thought Camel Filter was pretty funny.
So we rented a camel for the day at Fellowship Church. We paid a couple hundred bucks, and they brought us out Harpo the camel. Well, I tried to make friends with Harpo because we had something kind of fun. I was going to ride in on the back of the camel and all that stuff. But Harpo did not like Fellowship Church. We tied a rope around him. I mean, we weren’t being cruel to him, because I like animals. I don’t want to be cruel to animals, but four of us were trying to push this camel into Fellowship. He wasn’t going. So we had to settle for second best. We just filmed Harpo hanging out in the parking lot and people could pet him after the service. That’s about it. But camels…they’re wild.
So these wise men, though—that’s what I was talking about, wise men—they had to be some serious seekers to sacrifice the way they did. These guys were bling-blinging. They were major players. They were heavy hitters. They had a lot of money. For them to take that much time to travel?
Back in Biblical times—I’ll talk about it during the 11 Christmas services—it was a feat to travel. Oftentimes, people died. And it was difficult to travel. So these people were not just like, “Hey, look at the sky! It looks kind of bright. Ah, I think we’ll take a road trip, guys. You know? We don’t have anything else to do. We’re worth millions. Let’s go.” No, no. It was work.
Again, why were they doing that? Why were they into traveling? Why? I’m a “why” person. Well, go back to the travel agency for a second—Travel Habit. We worked with all these clients, all these people around the Houston area. And basically, all our clients cared about were two things. They cared about their itinerary and their tickets. That’s all they cared about. They didn’t care about the company, Travel Habit. They didn’t care about all the conversations that we had with all the people, with all of the hotel representatives, with all the people that were working with the airlines, all the people with the rental cars and all that. They didn’t care about that. They said, “Give me my tickets and give me my itinerary. That’s all I want.”
But there’s another side to Travel Habit. There were some guts to it, some inner workings, some depth to it. And to discover the significance of the wise men, kind of like we did with King Herod, we’ve got to go subterranean. We’ve got to blow the dust off the history books and discover why these guys were willing to make this long trip to Jerusalem. Yes, they were about worship, but why? What caused them to go, “Yeah, I’m going to take a road trip to Jerusalem.” Why would they do that? Well, let’s pursue that.
Most scholars feel that the wise men’s story and their road trip began centuries before they were born. In other words, let’s push the clock back centuries before the wise men were even a twinkle in their parents’ eye. I’m talking about—that was funny—a long time ago. Please laugh with me. Thank you very much. A long time ago. I want you to see the relationship, the correlation, that many scholars see—and this will freak you out—with Daniel and the Magi. “Whoa, Ed…Daniel? You’re talking about the guy I heard about in children’s Sunday school a long time ago? You mean, like Daniel and the lion’s den? You mean Daniel, the guy that was talking about the high-protein diet long before Atkins made millions on it? You mean that Daniel?” Yes, Daniel. This is centuries before the wise men were born.
Well, here’s what happened. The Babylonians took over Jerusalem. When they took a city, they would deport back from the city the best and the brightest. They took back Daniel, and they also took back Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. You know, the three firemen. I’m talking about the asbestos boys. Some of you got that.
So they took them all back to Babylon. And Daniel went through the lion’s den and Daniel was the leader. He was a standup guy, eating healthy food and all that. But Daniel was also a prophet. He was the man who knew the Lord. He was the man who knew Scripture. And I’m sure he shared with this Babylonian culture verses like this in the book of Numbers 24:17, “I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel.”
Daniel, I know, shared verses like that with this culture, with his peers. And the culture accepted this because Daniel was a standup guy. He was a leader. Then, centuries later, these Magi come onto the scene and they’re familiar with Daniel’s writings, with this prophecy. And they’re familiar with all that. So they’re, like, looking in the sky going, “One day, maybe in our lifetime, we’ll see a star. And this star will lead us to the king of the Jews.” So everybody was waiting for that.
Let me stop here and say something very important. Isn’t God amazing? God, in his sovereignty, knew that these Magi would be born, that they would need to have a sort of a path paved for them to discern a star in the sky. How was God going to work that out? Well, God used Daniel centuries before they were born as a travel agent to prepare the way for the Magi so they would look toward the sky, so they would recognize the star that would point them to the crib of Christ. That is awesome! It’s amazing how God works.
And if all of us here who are believers, if all of us knew how God worked behind the scenes to bring us to the point where we accepted Christ, where we bowed to the knee at the crib, we wouldn’t believe it. We would not believe it! Who knows? In your life and mine, one day in Heaven we’ll discover this. Maybe God has worked centuries earlier to pave the path, to carve the course so we can see an earthbound star, or travel agent, that would point us to Christ.
I think about 1 Chronicles 28:9. I want to share that with you. “…The LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you.” We seek because God seeks us. The Magi sought because they were sought. If someone, the Bible says, is sincerely seeking the truth—I mean they’re the real deal, they’re doing the Magi thing—then God will break through their system and reveal himself to them. God will put a travel agent, a Daniel, in their life, or an earthbound star in their life to point them to the crib of Christ.
All the time people ask, “Well, Ed, you know, what about the person who’s never heard about Christ? I mean, what about him? What about her? What will happen to them, Ed?” I say this. I say, “Well, God is fair. He is just. We have to trust God on that one.” Then I turn it and say, “How about you? How about the life that’s been revealed to you? What are you doing? What is your response to the life?”
Also, though, we’ve got to understand this. Just like the Magi…. I mean, the Magi were stargazing, “Wow, whoa!” God broke through their system to reveal himself to them. If someone is sincerely seeking, I don’t care where they live on planet Earth, God will break through their system to reveal himself to them. We have to trust God on it and believe God on it. God is a just God.
We have a number of people here at Fellowship Church right now who are believers. Others here are seekers. If you’re a seeker, are you really seeking or are you just seeking to be seeking? Are you just trying to be an intellectual just for the sake of intellect? True seekers, though, when they find the answer, they land.
How about those here who are believers? I’m a believer. Just for a second, if you’re a Christian, think back. Blow the dust off the history book of your life. Think back to that time before you became a Christ follower. Think back before you gave the throne of your life to Christ. Think back before you made a crib out of your life for Christ to be born there. Who, I ask you, was that earthbound travel agent in your life? Who was that Daniel? Who was that earthbound star that pointed you to Christ? Who was it? For me, it was my parents. For you it could be a pastor, a coach, a friend, or a Sunday school teacher way back there. Maybe you went to a Bible study in college. Who? Who did God use as his travel agent to point you to Christ?
[“AT THE CRIB” STAR HANDOUT]
In your worship guide, you’ll see a section that has a little star. Take that out for a second. Everyone, just really quickly take it out. In the middle of the star you’ll see two lines. I want you to write the name on that first line (or names) of the person who was your earthbound travel agent who led you to Christ, if you’re a Christian. Because if you’re not a believer, you can’t fill in the blank. That’s okay. One day you will. Write the name or names of the person who led you to Christ.
Now, here’s a little bit of homework. I want all of us to go home this week and write them a letter and just say “Thank you.” Don’t do the e-mail thing. That’s weak. Anybody can email. No, I mean old-school it. Take the pen and paper out and write them. Or maybe call them and say, “Thank you for being my travel agent.” They might be shocked, “What? I was your travel agent? I was your Daniel? I was your earthbound star? I had no idea.”
After you fill out the names…. See the five lines on the points of the star? That’s just what this series is about and you can just jot this down. It’s the Crucial Relationship Initiated By the Savior. That’s a little acrostic that spells “CRIBS.”
Jesus was born and put in the crib. He crawled out of the crib. He died on the cross for your sins and mine. He rose again. He’s the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And he confronts all of us. He wants us to give the throne of our lives to him. We’re wired to worship him. Our crib, your crib and mine, is made for Christ to call the shots, for Christ to run the show.
The wise men knew there was something missing in their lives. They knew there was a hole in their hearts. They knew something was amiss, something was sideways, something wasn’t right. What did they do? Well, let’s keep on reading.
DEVOTION
They were into worship. And if you’re into worship, you’re going to be a 3-D guy or 3-D girl. The first D I want you to notice is devotion. Look at Matthew 2:11. Now these wise men showed up. “On coming to the house….” Let me press the pause button here—“On coming to the house….” If you see a manger scene and you see the wise men there, that does not hold biblical water. That’s pretty and all that, but the wise men did not show up right after Jesus was born. Jesus here was already at Mother’s Day Out (daycare). He was, like, two. He was. Study the Scriptures. “On coming to the house,” or you could say the Christ crib, not his literal crib, but I’m talking about house crib. “On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.”
I said it earlier: we’re made to worship. “They worshiped Him.” They were seeking. They were seeking because God was seeking them, and they said, “Whoa, this is the answer. I’m going to land here.” They were true seekers and they bowed down and worshiped.
If you bow down before something, you are giving your life to it. You are saying that this is it. And that is what they did. As believers, we must have a time in our life where we’ve bowed before Christ and devoted our lives to him. And once we devote our lives to him, we give him the keys, we give him the reigns. We say, “Take over the throne of my life. You call the shots. You’re God. I’m not.” And that’s what was going on here in this exchange with these Magi, with these wise men. Devotion.
DEDICATION
Also, look at their dedication. That’s the second D in their 3-D worship, their dedication. Look at the last part of verse, Matthew 2:11b. How do we know they really worshipped? Well, it tells us in Verse 11, the last part. “Then, opening their treasures”—again, these guys were rolling in the bling-bling, ca-ching ca-ching—“and presented to Him”—him being Jesus— “gifts.”
Whoa! I mean they were putting their money where their mouth was, you know? “Gifts of gold”—why gold? Gold was a gift you would give a king. Jesus is the King of Kings, Lord of Lords. “Incense”—or you can say “frankincense” here. Frankincense represented the deity of Christ—fully God, fully man. “And myrrh”—Myrrh was used before someone was buried. This was foreshadowing Jesus’ dying on the cross for all of our sins.
These guys were wealthy. They were rich. Rich people can sightsee. Rich people can check things out. They can observe and stuff. These wise men, though, were really wise and they were wealthy and they discovered the reason of their wealth. It was to give. And that’s what they did.
We can bow down and worship and give in devotion all day long and get teary and all that. But a true worshiper is a giver. It’s funny; we get excited about devotion, but when you start talking about dedication and you start talking about money and stuff we are like, “Whoa, this stuff is serious, dude.” Jesus talked about money more than he talked about almost any subject. The reason he talked about it so much is he knew and he knows we would struggle with it so much.
We think it’s ours, don’t we? We struggle with that. I struggle with it. “That’s mine.” No, it’s not. It’s God’s. And every time the offering plate is passed in this corporate worship, it’s a test. Do you see the Lord or not? “Oh, He’s Lord emotionally, psychologically. He’s Lord relationally. But financially, ah, let me talk to my accountant. Let me….”
And see, we oftentimes give—I’m talking about Christians now—just enough to kind of get by, to feel good. No, no, no. We need to give until it costs us something. And there’s a lot of people running around different churches that call themselves Christians. And they talk all this smack, they talk all the devotion, all the bowing down, all the worship. They get all teary and stuff, but they don’t give jack to the birthday boy. “Hey, Ed, this is Christmas time! You’re going to show up to a birthday party and not give a gift?!” What’s up with that? It’s weird how we do that, isn’t it? I’ve probably stepped on some toes now.
DIRECTION
Anyway, let’s go to the third D—I’m talking to myself, too—direction. I preach to myself. Don’t think I don’t. I can’t talk to you unless God’s first talked to me. I’m just sharing with you what God’s told me during the week through all my study. That’s what preaching is; it’s teaching.
Direction. This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. Direction. See, these wise men, once they worshiped, once they were devoted, once they proved their worship by giving, then [Verse 12] “they returned to their country by another route,” another direction. Have you ever noticed that people have no direction these days? Have you ever talked to people? I say, “Hey, what’s the meaning of your life? Where are you going?”
“I don’t know, man, I’m just…I don’t know. I want to make a lot of money. Maybe, you know, have a house one day in the mountains or the beach.”
“Really? That’s where you’re going?”
“Yeah, I think. I’m not really sure.”
“Where are you going in your relationships?”
“Well, I don’t know.”
“How about your marriage?”
“Well….”
It’s amazing. And I understand why most people don’t have a true direction. It’s because they’ve never worshiped God. They have never bowed the knee to the crib. They’ve never devoted themselves to Christ. They’re worshiping other things. And because of that, they have no real direction. So, if you want direction and purpose and meaning for your life, you’ve got to bow the knee to Christ. It’s the only way we’ll have real purpose and real power and real meaning as we negotiate the maze of this one and only existence.
Well, check out the Magi. Matthew 2:12, “And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.” Every time you truly worship, you return by another route. But remember, as believers, we don’t come to Fellowship Church to worship. As believers, we come worshiping. We come for corporate worship, but we come worshiping. Because everything we do as believers should be an act of worship.
How you treat your employees—an act of worship. How you treat your boss—an act of worship. How you treat your spouse—an act of worship. How you treat your kids—an act of worship. Kids, how you treat your parents—an act of worship. Everything we do as believers should be an act of worship. We can’t compartmentalize worship. Worship transcends everything we do, say, touch and feel.
They left by another route, by a different direction. Devotion, dedication and a new direction. That’s 3-D stuff. That’s some deep stuff. That’s some real worship.
It’s exciting to see so many people come to Fellowship Church who are involved in real worship. There’s nothing like it. The power of real worship. The power of someone in a new direction. A while back, I was talking to someone about Fellowship Church and this young lady goes, “You know, I’m going to start coming to Fellowship Church.” I said, “Really? That’s great.” And then I thought she would tell me, you know, “I’m coming to Fellowship Church because the services, the speaking, the music.” She didn’t say any of that. She said, “You know why I’m coming to Fellowship Church?” I said, “No.” (Now, this girl was like nuts. I’m talking like partying every night, doing this, doing that, involved in some pretty wild stuff.) She said, “Because I’ve known a girl for a long time and she…”, and she said, “this girl started coming to Fellowship Church, and now she’s walking in a different direction. She’s like a new person,” she told me. And she goes, “You know…I want what she has. That’s why I’m going to come to Fellowship Church, because I see what she has. I see the difference in her life.”
I thought, “Wow! That’s so powerful.” It’s the power of a new direction. The power of a worshiper, someone who’s found the meaning, someone who’s made a crib out of their life and allowed Christ to be born there influencing someone who is clueless about the Gospel. I mean, that is what the church is all about. That’s thrilling, thrilling, thrilling.
Take out your worship guide again. Look at that star once again. You know the blank I told you not to fill out beneath the first center blank? There’s another blank below that center blank. I want you, only believers now. Seekers, you don’t have to do this now. Believers, I want you to write down the name of someone that God has placed in your life, on your heart right now, that you are influencing.
“Ah, Ed, I’m not influencing anybody.” Yes, you are. Who, in other words, who are you being a travel agent to right now? Who are you being an earthbound star to? It could be someone around the office. It could be someone in your neighborhood. It could be your spouse. It could be, I don’t know, a relative. It could be a friend you hung out with in college. Write down that name or names that God’s putting on your heart right now. Because you, I’m telling you, are an earthbound star. You’re an influence. You’re a travel agent that God has orchestrated maybe centuries before this time, just to lead this person to Christ.
Maybe you’re here today and you’re a seeker and you’re going, “Wow, this person who brought me here, they’re like my travel agent.” That’s great. Ask questions. Ask the “why” questions. Seek. Investigate. But make sure you land somewhere.
And believers, we have an opportunity to pray for these people, to talk to these people. We can invite them to 11, count them, 11 Christmas services. There’s no way someone’s going to give you 11 nos. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It’s not going to happen unless they’re out of town, you know? It’ll be amazing what will occur. Pray for them. Engage them in conversation.
Often I pray, “God, help me to be a travel agent to others.” And I try to follow that. Sometimes, though, I get sideways. I forget, you know, that I’m supposed to be that earthbound star.
Recently, I went fishing with some friends here at Fellowship Church. We went to this fishing camp, and right before we left I called someone down there. I said, “Hey, our group from Fellowship, we’re going to be the only ones there, right?” They said, “No, there’s someone else, somebody from Ft. Lauderdale.” I said, “Okay, thank you.” I thought, “Man! Ft. Lauderdale? Some guy, you know. I wanted it to be just some Fellowship people you know? Man!” So we showed up at this place, our group, and at dinner at this picnic table kind of deal, we were talking. And this guy from Ft. Lauderdale walks in. His name is Chris.
Now, when guys meet, you know, guys don’t talk like women. We can’t talk like women. We don’t have the ability to communicate like women. Guys pretty much go, “Uh, uh…where you from? What do you do for a living?” It’s always, “Where you from, man? What do you do for a living?” “Where you from, man? What do you do for a living?” You know?
He asked me, you know, “Where are you from?” “Dallas/Ft. Worth.” “What do you do for a living?” I said, “I’m a pastor.” I always enjoy saying that. Because to watch people’s eyes, they try to act like they’re not shocked by this. It’s like—and I see them press the rewind button—“Ah, hey, man. I didn’t mean those ‘damns’ and ‘hells’ I said earlier. I really ah, you know, I normally don’t drink. I can’t believe I….” It’s funny. It’s hilarious. Just be yourself; be yourself. It’s funny.
Anyway, I was talking to Chris. You know, the more we talked, the more I could see this guy was a seeker. He was a seeker. And he began to talk to me and ask me questions and stuff. And I’m like “Wow!” And after we finished eating, we walked outside, even though the mosquitoes were biting, and I was like, “This guy wants some answers.” Then I felt the Holy Spirit of God tell me, not audibly, but just felt it like, “Ed, man, how selfish are you? I mean how insensitive are you? Here you didn’t want this guy to be down here. Now, God’s using you as a travel agent to maybe guide him to the crib of Christ?” And we began to talk more and more and he began to say, “You know, Ed, you know I’m married. I have a great wife and a great family, but there’s something missing. We’re searching in the Florida area for the meaning. We’re trying to land.”
He began to tell me all the places he was seeking and all that, and I began to talk to him about the Lord a little bit. And I happened to have had a book I had written on marriage. I just had it with me. I thought, “Well, hey, Chris, why don’t you read this book? I wrote it.” The guy started crying. I mean he was like, “Thank you so much.” And then I started telling him about a pastor that I know who’s been to our Creative Church Conference who lives in Ft. Lauderdale. And I’m going to try and hook them up.
I know that I’m his travel agent. Maybe not the travel agent, but I know that I’m one of the stars God’s going to use to bring him, I believe, to Christ, because Chris is a seeker. And the next time I go to south Florida, I’m going to look him up. I’m going to look him up. There’s nothing like it. So, I challenge you to be sensitive to the Magi in your life, to the wise men or wise women in your life. Because Christmas is all about CRIBS, isn’t it? That Crucial Relationship Initiated By the Savior.
Yes, he’s the Savior. He’s the King of Kings. But the question is “Is he your Savior? Is he your King?” And that’s an answer, that’s a question that only you can deal with.